Over-the-counter high destroys young life

Jordan Allen, 20, will openly admit to using drugs — though his drug of choice might come as a shock to most.

Chad Frey

Jordan Allen, 20, will openly admit to using drugs — though his drug of choice might come as a shock to most.

It’s something he very likely can find in your medicine cabinet — or on store shelves. His drug of choice is an ingredient in almost any cold or cough medicine.

“When you do this the first time, you won’t know who you are,” Allen said, “or what you are doing. You won’t be able to write your name on a piece of paper.”

Allen has been getting high using over-the-counter drugs for about two years — two years that have changed his life forever.

During that two years, he’s been through rehab programs twice, attempted suicide twice, and been caught shoplifting and driving under the influence.

Allen said he never touched any drug — not even a cigarette or a bottle of booze — until he turned 18. Then he went to college and started getting wild.

He turned to hard drugs, but when the cash ran out, it was time to find a cheap way to get high.

Inexpensive high

Allen and his friends turned to Dextromethorphan, an ingredient in over-the-counter medication.

“This is an inexpensive way to get high,” he said. “The pharmacy is like Christmas for guys like me. I can go there and get handfuls of amazingly powerful drugs.”

Dextromethorphan, commonly called DXM, also goes by the names of CCC, Triple C, Skittles, Robo and Poor Man’s PCP. The Food and Drug Administration announced concern about the abuse of DXM in 2005.

DXM is a synthetically produced ingredient found in many over-the-counter cough and cold remedies.

“You can get this at convenience stores,” said Jordan’s mother, Terri Allen. “You can get this anywhere.”

‘Scary stuff’

DXM can have long-lasting, devastating effects. Use of DXM can lead to permanent brain damage. Other ingredients in cough suppressants containing DXM can lead to liver damage, increased blood pressure, central nervous system problems and heart issues.

According to the Department of Justice, some deaths have been reported from mixing DXM with alcohol.

Jordan started taking the drug while living in Reno County and continued when he moved back to his hometown of Hillsboro. He’s still taking the drug after he and his mother moved to Newton this month.

“This stuff is scary,” said Chad Gay, school resource officer at Newton High School. “Last year, I had a kid show up at school and one of the teachers brought it to my attention that he wasn’t acting right. He was gone. He couldn’t hardly talk to me. His speech was slurred and his pupils were huge — almost as big as his iris.”

Gay said that student confessed to taking a number of over-the-counter cough suppressant pills. He also said most of the time, kids steal those pills.

Heavy price

As his criminal record will attest, Jordan Allen rarely pays for the pills he takes from the shelves — but those pills and syrups have come with a heavy price.

He was kicked out of college after one year, and with his criminal record, it’s tough to get a job — though right now he is working in fast food.

He spent four months homeless — he claims by choice. His mother, Terri Allen, has wavered between kicking him out of the house and taking him back.

“I can’t describe for you the constant battle. ... Last summer, I asked him to leave,” she said. “I couldn’t have him there with my 9-year-old daughter. At one point, he almost burned the house down. ... He was high and didn’t know what he was doing.”

He would eat and take showers at his mother’s home, or a friend’s home — but staying in the house was not an option. Most nights he was in a tent or sleeping on a church roof. Now, Terri sleeps on the couch in the living room, trying to keep tabs on him by making it harder for him to leave the house.

Her boyfriend, Rick Tole, whom she lived with last year, is still in Hillsboro. Rather than make a move to create a family, the family is splintered.

“When you have a family unit and one chooses not to participate, everyone else has to pick up the slack,” Tole said. “His outlook on life is very flawed. ‘I’m living,’ we get that a lot. ‘I’m kicking it with my buds,’ when most of them are on probation or in jail.”

Derailed mind

Once a college student considering majors in psychology or philosophy, Jordan Allen’s mind can’t seem to stay put anymore.

“My mind is in constant derailment,” he said. “My thoughts go from one thing to the next. If you listen to me think out loud, it wouldn’t make sense. It makes perfect sense to me, but it’s much different than normal people think.”

Jordan Allen claims that started in high school, before he started taking drugs. He believes the drugs amplified what was happening in his thought process, and he could have been treated and stopped it.

“This drug will dumb you down; the brain will shrink,” Terri Allen said. “His reasoning isn’t there; it’s flawed and illogical. His motor skills are not there. His handwriting is gone. In just two years time, he writes like an 80 year-old.”

Jordan Allen walked away from an $18,000 scholarship to art school to stay with his friends but did find three things he enjoyed while enrolled in a junior college. He enjoyed classes in jazz, psychology and philosophy. Whether any will turn out to be his future remains to be seen.

He said he knows getting clean is necessary to his future, but right now, he’s not staying clean. He used DMX a week ago — though he said he didn’t take very much.

DXMers refer to four plateaus of highs, based on dose. According to the U.S. Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration, the first plateau is mild stimulation.

The second is euphoria and hallucinations — a place Jordan Allen has been with his friends. He’s also been to the third level — distorted visual perceptions and loss of motor coordination and the fourth — dissociative sedation.

He and his friends don’t really like the fourth plateau very much — normally using other drugs to “boost the hallucinogenic effect” of DXM.

“At really high levels, you’re basically out on the couch and can’t even move,” Jordan Allen said. “We don’t really like that.”

They’ve done the research to know about drug interactions — actually learning the chemical breakdowns of some drugs.

“Jordan could teach a class on this,” Terri Allen said. “It is scary how much he knows. He’s taught us a lot about this.”

Newton Kansan

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.